Renee Good’s partner, Becca Good, cried Thursday as she recounted taking their 6-year-old son to his first day of school this year without her, and the pain of planning their Halloween celebration.
“And this Halloween, our son’s absolute favorite holiday, I’ll take him trick-or-treating without her hand in mine,” she said. “Every single one of these moments, for all of her babies and for everyone up here, was a monument moment and she should be here for all of them.”
It was Becca’s first public remarks since Good was killed by an immigration agent on Jan. 7 in south Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge. She said Good was “pure love,” “smart” and “gorgeous.”
“She was the center of my universe, and living without her is like trying to live without the sun,” she said. “And you don’t know how much light something gives you until it’s gone, and then you feel that absence every single second.”
Becca and Good’s parents and four siblings appeared alongside their attorneys Thursday at the University of St. Thomas to announce the filing of two lawsuits against the federal government and immigration agents.
The suits allege that the government caused Good’s wrongful death, and conspired to violate her civil rights. The family’s attorneys did not specify how much they’re seeking in damages. Becca said the suits “are taking steps to build a world Renee would have wanted.”
Good’s family cried as Becca tearfully said Good is “her first thought” every morning, and that watching their son grow up without her is the “hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.” Good’s mother Donna Ganger, caressed Becca’s arm as she spoke at a podium during the family’s news conference.
“I think about how we should’ve had forty, sixty more years together, but I also think about what she would’ve wanted out of all of this,” Becca said.
She said she doesn’t “hate the people who took Renee from us,” but hopes they understand the impact losing Good has had on her family, and that they carry that “forever.”
Becca described Good as a doting mother who read to her three children and shared music and comics with them. Good has two children from first marriage and a third child from her second marriage.
“She gave them all the room and the encouragement and the safety to grow into their own people,” Becca said. “She nurtured every one of their interests.”
The pain of losing Good was underscored this year, Becca said, when she went back-to-school shopping in August to prepare their son for first grade.
“I bought him new shoes and a backpack and notebooks, pencil case – whole nine yards – and I went to back-to-school night on my own,” she said. “[Renee] never missed a single moment.”
She thanked Minneapolis residents for their support in the wake of Good’s killing, and said they chose to live here because the community is “unlike anything we experienced in all the places we both have lived.”
“It was exactly what we’ve both been searching for for so long – our home,” she said. “And I really could never say enough about the love and support that this community gave to me and countless others since that day.”
Residents have offered meals, rides and babysitting help.
Brent Ganger, Good’s brother, said while his parents are “lifelong” Republican voters, he’s a moderate and other relatives lean more Democrat. Yet their family “love each other” despite the political differences, he added.
“Our family proves that even in the darkest of times, we can and should stay together,” he said.
He said he “deeply regrets” that it took Good’s death to realize that no one is “untouchable.”
“It has taken far too long for white people like me to know what it feels like to not feel safe in this country,” he said. “My brothers and sisters of color have always had a hard time feeling safe from police, and many for good reason, still don’t.”
Good’s brother and Becca said they want accountability for Renee, and to protect other families.
“Today we are taking steps to build the world Renee would have wanted,” Becca said. “The world I promised our son every night when I tuck him in — this is the world that she believed in. It’s the world I’m gonna fight for, and it’s the world I’m going to raise our son in.”
Becca and Good’s family did not address questions after their remarks.
Good, 37, a Minneapolis resident and mother of three, was killed at 34th Street and Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis while observing immigration enforcement activity during Operation Metro Surge.
“The world was stunned by what they saw on January 7,” said Antonio Romanucci, lead attorney on the two lawsuits. “Our government normalized and neutralized what our eyes saw.”
Romanucci presented images at the news conference showing screenshots from a video that captured the shooting. One image showed Jonathan Ross, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who shot Good, standing in front of her vehicle.
“He willingly, knowingly placed himself in front of Renee’s vehicle,” Romanucci said.
Another image showed Ross near Good on the driver’s side of the vehicle after he had fired the first shot.
“No one, including Ross, was in the path of the vehicle at that point,” Romanucci said, “and he fired the second shot or the third shot.”
What the lawsuits allege
One suit filed against the United States of America alleges that the government caused Good’s wrongful death under a Minnesota statute predicated on battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence.
The lawsuit is filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows individuals to sue the U.S. government in federal court for personal injury, death or property damage.
It says that Ganger brings this suit “to recover for the immense suffering Renee endured in the final moments of her life”; and from Becca “to recover for the severe emotional distress, and its attendant physical manifestations, that the agents’ conduct has inflicted upon her.”
The lawsuit also details the events that led to her fatal shooting that morning and claims that the agents’ action violated the Fourth Amendment and U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s own policies.
Another lawsuit was filed against Ross, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, political operative Corey Lewandowski, border czar Tom Homan, former acting ICE director Todd Lyons, former Border Patrol leader Gregory Bovino, and ten other federal agents identified as “John Doe.”
It alleges several counts, including conspiracy to deprive Somali Hispanic residents equal protections under the law. The suit accuses Ross of using excessive force. It lists several claims under Minnesota tort law, including wrongful death, battery, assault and false imprisonment.
Case history
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and Minnesota Attorney General’s Office are investigating Good’s killing, but no criminal charges have been filed in state or federal court against the immigration agent who shot Good.
Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, testified in front of Congress last week with family members of other victims killed by federal immigration agents. Stella Carlson, a bystander who filmed the Jan. 24 killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, also testified.
“We need action. We need accountability. We need this never ever to happen again and destroy another family or a community,” Ganger testified.
Good’s older brother, Brent Granger, also testified.
“In the days since my sister’s death, ICE agents have continued to intimidate, assault, hurt, and kill innocent people,” he testified. “Since Renee’s death, no meaningful changes occurred.”
Attorneys representing Good’s family are conducting a civil investigation into the shooting, and filed a motion in April to retrieve the Honda Pilot she was driving when she was killed.
Taking legal action against the federal government is a long, complex process, and “always challenging” because state and local law enforcement officers have “many immunities,” according to a Jan. 14 statement from Antonio Romanucci, one of Good’s attorneys.
“This process will not deter us in any way from fervently pursuing justice on behalf of Renee Good,” said Romanucci’s Jan. 14 statement.
According to the motion to recover Good’s vehicle: Good and Becca dropped off their 6-year-old son at school on Jan. 7 and were driving home when they stopped to observe federal agents in their neighborhood. Good stayed in the driver’s seat as Becca exited the vehicle to film the agents. As bystanders recorded videos at the scene, Good motioned for other vehicles to pass her vehicle, which was parked in the middle of the street.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross exited his vehicle and started filming with his phone. He walked in front of Good’s vehicle as she started to turn her vehicle to the right away from Ross and slowly moved forward, according to the motion.
“Ross was at no point in danger from the vehicle,” read the motion. “Notwithstanding the absence of any threat, Ross drew his gun and fired at least three times at Renee.”
Then-U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist,” and blamed Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for refusing to cooperate with federal officials on immigration enforcement.
Becca described Good as someone who showed up for others as a “volunteer, a mom, a friend” in a Feb. 7 statement released by her attorneys.
“Renee was not the first person killed, and she was not the last,” Becca’s February statement said. “You know my wife’s name and you know Alex’s name, but there are many others in this city being harmed that you don’t know — their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don’t look like mine. They are neighbors, friends, coworkers, classmates. And we must also know their names. Because this shouldn’t happen to anyone.”
Other ICE fatalities, injuries
At least 58 people have died in ICE custody and at least 20 people have been shot since the start of the second Trump administration, according to lawmakers at last week’s congressional hearing. Two other Minneapolis residents were killed during Operation Metro Surge.
Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man, was shot and wounded in the leg by ICE agent Christian Castro on Jan. 14 in North Minneapolis. Sosa-Celis and his roommate, Alfredo Aljorna, were charged and taken into federal custody. City surveillance video that captured the shooting contradicted Castro’s claims that he was attacked by Sosa-Celis, Aljorna and a third man with a broom and shovel. The federal charges against Sosa-Celis and Ajlorna were dismissed.
The U.S. Department of Justice charged Castro in May with allegedly lying about the shooting. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Castro on May 18 with four counts of second-degree assault using a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the shooting.
Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was shot and killed by multiple federal agents on Jan. 24 on Nicollet Avenue. Videos that captured the shooting showed that agents tackled Pretti to the ground and shot him after he tried to help a woman who had been pushed down by an agent.
The Hennepin County Attorney and Minnesota Attorney General’s offices are investigating all three shootings, and filed a lawsuit in mid-March against the federal government for refusing to release evidence in the cases. Federal officials agreed six months later to release some evidence to local officials.
Sahan staff writers Shubhanjana Das and Katrina Pross, and digital producer Alberto Villafan contributed to this report.
